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Thunder are to release their latest album ‘Wonder Days’ through earMUSIC on February 16th (UK/EU). Fans have had quite a wait for anything new to come out of the Thunder camp, but the wait was worth it. Judging by the reaction our listeners gave when they heard the single ‘Wonder Days’, it’s clear to anyone with a pulse that they are back with a belter of an album.

Recorded at the infamous Rockfield Studios, from start to finish, the songs on the album seem to have this ability to form an instant bond with the listener, grabbing your attention right from the opening riff, through to the dying notes. It’s this rare gift that has served them well, ever since the day they recorded as a band and in Luke Morley, us Brits have a songwriter we can be rightly proud of.

I sat down with Danny Bowes and Luke Morley at a studio in London to ask how ‘Wonder Days’ was put together. Always willing to fully answer any questions thrown at them, we began by asking after Ben Matthews’ health. Listening to their answers, you immediately sense that their ambition is as strong as ever it was and that they are proud, rightly so, of the way they have adapted to the new approach to recording an album and what they’ve achieved in the studio with ‘Wonder Days’.

There are very few rock bands out there, less than a handful in my experience, that can ignite such a positive reaction from listeners when played on ‘The Classic Rock Show’ as Thunder can…and I’d put them at the top of that list. ‘Wonder Days’ will only ensure they stay there for a long time to come.

It’s fair to say that UK quartet Skarlett Riot don’t lack confidence. As anyone that’s had the pleasure of witnessing this young four-piece live will attest to.

In an already jam-packed career Skarlett Riot have wowed audiences at Download (earning a 4K live review from Kerrang!) and Bloodstock, and have shared stages across the UK with the likes of Wednesday 13, D-A-D, Reckless Love, Heaven’s Basement, Periphery, Firewind, Black Spiders, Edguy, Taking Dawn, L.A Guns, Glamour Of The Kill, Crashdiet, Vains Of Jenna, Deaf Havana, Francesqa plus many more, including the prestigious Reading and Leeds festivals to their live resume.

The band’s debut EP, the critically acclaimed “Villain”, set the benchmark high and led to glowing praise within the rock community. In 2013, they released their first album ‘Tear Me Down’, once again, it was received well by press and fans. Now, they’re about to release another EP entitle ‘We Are The Brave’, a collection of songs with big riffs, and strong themes.

I recently got talking to Skarlett, the lead singer, about the EP and I began by asking her about the new video which has been circulating on Scuzz TV.

MJ: Skarlett…welcome to The Classic Rock Show. How are you doing?

S: Yeah, I’m good, thank you.

MJ: Busy time for you all. You’ve a new video out for the song “Rising”. It’s a track off your We Are The Brave EP which is out on February the 16th. Tell us about the video.

S: Basically, we filmed it about six months ago. And we wanted like something silhouette-y, so you can only see the band at the end of the video. So it’s all blacked out, and the idea of it is the song is called “Rising,” obviously, and the lyrics are about getting revenge on someone, saying you’ll be back again. Having power in the lyrics. So we wanted to keep it all silhouetted out, and then at the end have the world kind of exposed so it looks more powerful, at the end, I guess. So we just got it on Scuzz TV as well which we’re really excited about too.

MJ: How long has the We Are The Brave EP been in the making?

S: I would say about a year. We’ve just been writing as much as possible since the Turn Down album in 2013. We had been thinking of doing a second album, but we said no, let’s put the best of what we’ve written so far into one EP. So we wrote about 10 songs and we picked about five to go on the EP, which has brought us up until now, really.

MJ: We’ve talked about “Rising”, but as you mentioned there’s five tracks on the EP: “Divide Us,” “Cascade,” “Wake Up,” and “Are You Alive?” Take us through each of those.

S: All the tracks, apart from “Rising” are about living life to the full and not wasting any time. Like “Wake Up”, “Are you Alive?” and “Cascade”. The lyrics to “Cascade” are about time slipping through the hourglass and having no time to spare. You know, it’s the sand in the hourglass is never going to stop, just like time itself. So, the back message is live your life and enjoy it and don’t listen to what anyone else says…just do what makes you happy.

MJ: Last year, of course you were seen at a number of festivals and on tours. How is 2015 looking for Skarlett Riot?

S: Yeah, we’re continuing to raise our profile and get as many fans and people knowing the name as possible. We’re touring with Gus G in February and then we’ve a few headline dates. We’ve got a sold out show at the O2 Academy Islington with Kamelot and Gus G in March. We’ll be with Slam Cartel in April…and a couple festivals here and there…so far, so good.

MJ: Going back to the EP, the front of the EP is a depiction of a lion’s head, which has been hand-drawn. Is that Helen Hebenton‘s work again?

S: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve known Helen for quite a while and worked with her before, way back to the Villian EP cover and the Villain t-shirts. She’s also responsible for designing the band’s new logo. We wanted the style of the new EP cover have a vintage look, with black and gray artwork. Helen was a perfect choice. She did a great job with the EP, the cover. It was largely her idea to use the lion it would best represent power and strength. I think it has come across really well.

MJ: You’re obviously going to be pushing the tracks on the EP in your ‘live’ set?

S: Yeah, we’ve been practicing like crazy. It’ll be like three or four of the new EP tracks and then we’ll be mixing it in with a couple of the Tear Me Down tracks. So, they’ll be a lot of new material in there, but we’ll be putting in a couple of what we think are the best tracks from the Tear Me Down album as well.

MJ: Any plans to release an album, or more videos on the back of this EP?

S: Yeah, I think we’ll be releasing a couple more singles off of the back of the EP. We wanted this EP to last the full year. But in between that we’ll be writing some more while the EP is circulating. We’re hoping to be writing an album, too, but we’re not sure when that will be released yet. For the moment, we all feel that we need to have the right material in place first. Make sure it’s 100% and that we’re all 100% happy with it.

MJ: Any last little things that you want to get over to the fans?

S: Just thank you very much for supporting us. We had such a great response to the pre-order for We Are The Brave. You can order it on www.skarlettriot.bigcartel.com. Yeah, thanks for the support and we’ll see you on the road!

Huntress captured the hearts and minds of Metalheads with their ‘Starbound Beast’ album. On the back of it, the band have been regularly seen alongside top-line touring acts across the US and Europe, and have made a major impact on the festival circuit. They’re currently touring with Amon Amarth (w/ co-support act Savage Messiah), taking in the UK, France, Portugal and Spain to sold out shows. I caught up with guitarist Blake Meahl to chat about all that’s happened to them since their 2013 album release on Napalm Records, gaining some insight into how they’ve progressed as a band.

MJ: Blake, welcome to The Classic Rock Show.

BM: Right on, thanks for having me.

MJ: You’re here in Colchester tonight. A town steeped in history.

BM: I hear it’s the oldest recorded town in your whole freaking island!

MJ: Absolutely, the Romans have been here. Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe took them out.

BM: I heard they got their asses kicked, right? Jill went bat-shit crazy when she heard all about her! [laughs]

MJ: Starbound Beast was received so very well in 2013, you’ve a new line-up as far as band members are concerned. It’s been a busy time for you guys. You’re currently touring with Amon Amarth on their ‘Deceiver Of The Gods’ tour and what a tour it’s been thus far! And such a cool story on how it worked out.

BM: Yeah! It’s a fitting tour for us, it’s been awesome. I mean, we’ve toured with a lot of incredible acts. We’ve just been so lucky and blessed to have so many crazy tour opportunities, but Amon Amarth has been on our list of, like, it would be so perfect. We first played with them on the Mayhem tour in the United States, which is like a month-long festival circuit. But before that we were at the Metal Hammer Awards out here because we were at Download for the first time and Amon Amarth was there also, and I run into Olavi and he’s like, “I know who you are!”. I was like, no way, what are you talking about…you’ve never heard us! And he’s like, “Oh yes I have! I have! You’ll see. I really like Huntress.” And sure enough he goes, “You’ll find out by the end of the tour. I did an interview and mentioned you”. And it turns out it was in Guitar World magazine and he’s was asked who are you looking forward to? And sure enough, he says it’s Huntress. And of course we don’t read it until after the Mayhem tour, and then we got to do a handful of one-off shows with them and here we are now! One of the things that I’d like to think we have in common is a really high priority of melody and songwriting. He was saying in that same interview, “People are always asking me like, what’s your secret? You wrote that song? Incredible. It’s not that hard! I just write songs. You know, I’m just writing melodies.” And when you see them and you see the crowd they are singing along to the guitar lines, just ‘whoa-ing’ away. And that’s all it comes down to is the fact that they’re not just trying to jerk themselves off like a little 12 year old kid trying to play as fast as he can. I’m actually going to make some music that people want to hear and remember. And that’s our goal also.

MJ: You’ve been in lots of bands prior to Huntress. Is there any difference in the way you write when you have a female vocalist as opposed to a male vocalist?

BM: Well, that’s an interesting question. In my former bands I was the vocalist, so I would probably just torture myself and put myself out of my range and try to scream my voice out and it would work out, maybe. I was trying to write stuff for myself and I was very inexperienced and I’ve never played at a professional level band like this before. It was always a hobby with my best friends. You already mentioned we’ve had some turnover in band members – our current drummer is my brother. We played together in high school and then we didn’t play together for about eight or ten years and only recently have reconnected with it, so all these bands I’ve been in have been such minor leagues. We never aspired for much, it was just we’re playing metal and we like to keep it weird and progressive and we always figured we would be in a van and just figured we would get some crappy label deal that we would be bound to for the rest of our lives and we didn’t care, that’s what we did. And as this band came together and we realized the potential of it and also our tastes and maturities changed, like a lot of the song writing has progressed not because of it being a female vocalist but because of what I realised I should have realised a long time ago, which is that the song is what’s important, not the riff. As much as I love riffs, and as important as they are, string 50 of them together as fast as you can is not a song. You know?

MJ: We just heard you play a new song, called ‘Flesh’. Yet to be recorded, I’m guessing.

BM: Basic tracks are done, but Jill has not done her vocals yet.

MJ: It sounds killer and it’s already one of my favourites of yours.

BM: Awesome, thank you. Really excited to hear that reaction. That song is one of the ones our producer is really excited about too. We’ve been playing four new ones in our set and that’s just one of them.

MJ: So tell us about the album. Has it got a name yet?

BM: Not that I’m allowed to reveal, but it’s going really well. It’s a strange process this time, because we stopped in the middle of it to come out here. And we stopped in the middle of our writing, our pre-production process to go on our last tour with Arch Enemy and Kreator in the States, so it’s been stop-start. It’s turning out really good though, and I’m very excited about it. As I said on a previous question, it’s focusing further and further on the songwriting and always knowing, Jill’s the vocalist. The vocals are what sticks with people and we can’t all be trying to compete for center stage and I feel like that’s one of the mistakes we’ve made in the past, one of the mistakes I’ve made as a guitar player…I’m just the fucking guitar player! As much as I love these lead guitar riffs and I’m going to have my space, you can’t always be competing, putting in double kick and a fast riff over a vocal. Metal bands sometimes get away with it, because there’s a lot of growling and all that. But when there’s too much melody fighting for center stage, it doesn’t really equate to a catchy song, you know? Or something that really sticks with people, and that’s the main goal here. So we’re just getting smarter and smarter about our songwriting and hope it’s going to open a lot of doors for us and that a lot of people are going to love it, and maybe some of the fans that have been with us for our extreme riffs and stuff, maybe they’ll long for that first album to be repeated here, but I think we’re making a much, much better product now as a result, you know?

Photo credit: Mike Lockheart

MJ: You’re working with some incredibly experienced and talented people on this album. Where did you record the album?

BM: Well, it’s being done in Burbank with a production team, Jim Rota and Paul Fig. Jim has played in a band called Fireball Ministry and is now doing a lot of video production. He did the Sound City movie for Dave Grohl and this whole new Sonic Highways thing and is the producer of that stuff. Paul is a badass engineer. He just did the last two Alice in Chains albums, he did the new Ghost album, he works with Nick Raskulinecz all the time who does a lot of big production stuff. We’re in really good hands. It’s cool because we have this most incredible engineer who is capable of whatever we need and a guy that’s constantly making us sit back and think about the song, and remember that the big picture and what the sum of all parts is what is important, not what each individual instrument is doing.

MJ: You’re making space for all the musicians!

BM: Yeah, it’s so important, it seems like such a stupid, obvious thing but especially in the metal world it’s easily forgotten.

MJ: Well, Blake it’s been a real pleasure sitting with you talking about the tour, the new album, the music and the songwriting. We wish you well on the rest of the tour, and every success for 2015. We are really stoked to hear that we have a new Huntress album this year.

BM: Thanks man. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for supporting us over the years and playing our music. To the guys ‘n gals reading this who haven’t heard of us, go watch the Zenith video and then come back and talk to me. To our fans who come out to our shows, we so appreciate your support. Make sure you tune into to ‘The Classic Rock Show’!

So there you have it…by the sounds of it, we’ve one heck of an album to look forward to from Huntress later on this year.

Normal service will resume tonight following last week’s ‘Special’. While we’re on the subject of last week, the response to our series ‘Back To The 80s’ has been simply astounding. Thank you!

Ok, back to tonight’s show. We’ve three hours of killer rock tuneage lined up for you, as many of the requests sent in this week as we can fit, plus single releases from Crobot, Blind Guardian, Skarlett Riot, Cancer Bats and a new band for us Empire of Fools.

Monster Magnet are back touring Europe and the UK in January/February, armed with a setlist that will contain many fan-faves including songs off of their critically acclaimed 2013 release ‘Last Patrol’.

Last November, however, Monster Magnet released ‘Milking The Stars: A Reimagining Of Last Patrol’ which took much of ‘Last Patrol’ on a sonically psychedelic trip. We chatted with Dave Wyndorf to ask about the album’s reinterpretation, the musicians that were especially brought in for this project, as well the up and coming European tour.

MJ: Hey Dave…it’s MJ from The Classic Rock Show.DW: MJ! What’s happening?MJ: I’m going good, how are you?DW: Doing good, sitting here sitting in the pissing rain in New Jersey, probably very similar to where you are, I would imagine. Kind of gray and pissy.MJ: It’s much the same here in England.DW: Welcome to winter.MJ: Indeed. Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet, welcome to ‘The Classic Rock Show’!DW: Thanks, dude.MJ: I guess we can still get away with it as we’re just into the second week of the new year…Happy New Year to you.DW: Yeah, Happy New Year to you! And to all your listeners.MJ: How did you go about celebrating the New Year?DW: You know this one went by really quick. I was, like, working in the studio which is probably the best place for me to be. All the way up to the holidays and then I did like a commando jump into the holidays, like hello, family! And then slept the whole time getting ready for the tour. So sometimes the holidays are best for the short, sharp shock as they say on Pink Floyd.MJ: Did you make any resolutions for the New Year?DW: You know I used to do that and always disappoint myself, so now there is no resolutions anymore. Why kid around? I’ve been disappointed in the past. I always fail. My resolutions always come after a bitter defeat at something. You know? I have to be beaten down or make a horrible mistake and then when I learn the lesson from that. That’s the resolution – I’ll never get beat down from that again.MJ: Listen, we’re going to get to talk about you coming out to tour Europe. But before we get to that, we’ve got loads to talk about, Dave. ‘Last Patrol’ was released back in 2013, widely acclaimed by Monster Magnet fans and music critics alike. In November though, you released ‘Milking the Stars: A Reimagining of Last Patrol’ via Napalm Records. As album titles go, that has all sorts of connotations to the laymen. What does that mean to Dave Wyndorf and the rest of the guys in Monster Magnet?DW: You know, the ‘Milking the Stars’ thing, that was just me following a whim that I had at the end of the record which is just the whim that I bring to almost every record. Like, oh, I could have done this and I could have done that. Songs are really cool, music is really cool, it’s really only defined by how you present it. There’s a song, but the way it’s presented is the song as well. Not to get too musical about it, but you put in minor notes, you add a different instrument, you sing it a different way, it becomes somewhat different. Same song, different vibe. And I always walk away from records, like this one I was like well why don’t I just stick to this? I didn’t have enough time to do a whole right and record a whole new record because I was so busy touring Last Patrol. Last Patrol did really well. So we toured and toured and toured. What I thought I could do, since I records now really close to my home, my whole life is like a demo now. It’s no more running off to big cities to make records. It’s, I live in a small town, and I record this stuff two blocks from my house. And I was like why don’t I just dive in there in between tours and see what I can come up with? Just because it sounds like fun. And I’m in love with all the instruments that I really don’t play very well, like melotrons and old sixties organs and stuff and was like what would happen if, how would it sound? And I got into it and I just got carried away. And the next thing you know I did the whole thing. And then I thought maybe I should release it and see what happens. And that’s really what happened, it was just, I was just following, like a bird dog, following down the trail. What would happen here? What would happen there? What would happen if you mixed it differently? Panned it left and right like the sixties? It quickly turned into a sixties kind of thing, because I love that sound. And it’s really fun to do. Opened up a whole new world for me. It’s something that’s not over till the fat lady sings! Or the fat man in this case.Yeah, it’s ridiculous, yes, I agree, it’s completely like why? Why would you do this? I know. I totally get it. Well, the good thing about it for my poor band mates, they didn’t have to like suffer through this reimagination. They didn’t really have to, it’s not like I called the gang back and said all right, we’re doing it again! Because they would have killed me. What I did was I just sat down with mainly my co-producer Phil Cavano, who is also a guitar player in Monster Magnet, and we arranged drums to suit the purpose digitally. Rearranged drums, rerecorded some guitar by myself and with Phil and some bass and some vocals. And whipped it up like that. And added stuff. Mostly by me and some other, I have a couple, two different keyboard guys to come in and do it. So it’s not like everyone sat on the floor going here we go again. That would have been a disaster, that would have been an absolute disaster because who would have gotten into it? You know? I mean I was because it was my obsession. But everyone else was like, okay, do what you want to do. And I think the real reason it worked was for one, the material was there, there was a lot to work with. And two, it didn’t stop the monster magnet train dead. You know, it wasn’t like alright, we are all shutting down because we have to do the same goddamn thing we did before, which would have been a nightmare. This was like a squirrely little like missions in the middle of the night over the course of a couple of months.

MJ: You mentioned you brought in a few musicians. Tell us about them and how they bought into the project.DW: It was awesome stuff. I mean I just needed, I mean I can play keyboards but not that well, I can’t play them without clamming. So I could sum up the part, do the part, but I couldn’t execute it. So I got a local guy named Matt Foreman, who played with a band called The Ribeye Brothers around here with Tim Cronin [ex Monster Magnet]. And he rocked it! He did sixties organ like completely spot on. Like it was 1968. So he did one. So then I needed like a B3 vibe, like a John Lord kind of early 70s distorted B3. And I found a guy in California named Kim Bullard, who had been around for forever. He actually plays with Elton John now! You know? He actually plays with Elton John. And I called him up and said hey, I have a friend of mine who says you play a mean B3, you know, like Deep Purple. And he said no one has asked me to play like Deep Purple in 35 years. And so we went to his house and he had this old B3 and that guy was unbelievable. I mean, that’s kind of a lost art, that whole thing. That playing that way through the real B3 distorted, through Marshall cabinets, all the flourishes, all that stuff, he was like a magician. And that’s how I got him, just by talking it up. It was really cool. He started to scratch the surface for real old mussos, not just punk guys like me, but like the real mussos are out there with nothing to do. I think I got to try this in the future.MJ: One of the new tracks on the album, and I think there’s around about four tracks that you added on a couple of live tracks on the back of the track as well?DW: Right.MJ: The opening track, “Let the Circus Burn” what a great opening track. It really does set the tone for the rest of the album.DW: Oh, awesome! Thanks. I had people going do you really want to start the record out like that? I was like, yeah of course! You have to know. Yeah that was, that’s one of the cool things about music, too, I just went in with absolutely no planning and the music kind of tells you what to do. I took a drum loop from the actual, from Last Patrol, the original track, just a loop, maybe a minute and a half, and looped it for six minutes and took the loop home and listened to it and sat there with a guitar and made everything up. Just with that repetitious loop. And as soon as I started playing it I said wow, this sounds like Pink Floyd on ‘Ummagumma’, it sounds like something like that. So just go that route. And then recorded a quick little droner track, and then I actually played the organ on that one, and did an organ track and spaced out the parts. Okay we’ll stop here, this is where it’ll stop and then I’ll get a cool sound, like an electron flute or something. It happened really fast. I mean, no more than a day. I think? The whole thing was almost done and it just goes to show you, using the elements of a preexisting song can be a whole new song. Without a lot of, like you said before, why bring everybody back? Unless it’s going to be something brand new. But, yeah never let it be said I’m not stubborn. Talk about milking the stars, milking the songs is more like it. But it was really fun and it came alive very, very quickly which is like a joy.MJ: That’s the word for me, Dave, “live”. It really does sound a studio live album. Some real edge to it, there’s some grit, there’s that determination that pushes through the song. It comes over so very well.DW: Thanks! I really appreciate it because that’s what I wanted it to sound like. In a weird kind of way with my attention was paid, well, there was a time constraint, so basically most of the effects on there were recorded onto tape or hard drive, or whatever you want to call it, a little lo fi using that ambiance to drive other parts, which kind of fuzzes the actual fidelity of the whole thing but makes it sound like it was done, you know, I played it as if people were playing it at the same time, like decisions were made with redoing the basses. And I said well, you know, the guitar kind of fucks up there, so you know why stop and fix the guitar? What would you do live? You would play the bass over that part. And just the ten minutes live, what would a live band do? They would just solider through. And so I kind of dialed back some of my more finicky tendencies and let the thing open up as the way it was going down without fixing too much. And when I listened it back I was like why don’t I make records like this all the time? It actually sounds alive! So, I learned a lot. You expect this kind of treatment more from future Monster Magnet albums for sure.

MJ: Well this was going to come into my next question funnily enough. Does ‘Milking the Stars’ set the tone for the next Monster Magnet album?DW: It has to somewhat, I mean, I can’t deny I love the sound of those keyboards you know? I love those scene change that they make. It’s just a whole different thing. It’s a new way to get to express a mood of the song. I used to be afraid of keyboards because number one we don’t have a keyboard player and don’t plan on getting one, it’s just one more person to play. Rock is expensive! It’s another plane ticket. And I never played keyboard that well so why set up a band you know, well why set up a band that can’t do what they do live? Can’t, why do it? But now the older I get I just think everything’s a big experiment, so if I have a way to express myself, express music through sounds that I may not necessarily always recreate out there live in every situation, it doesn’t matter. The record’s the thing. You know? The record’s the thing. Yeah, so I’ll just go. So now I’ve started to crack into this older musician thing with these guys hanging around from the old days with nothing to do. I think I’ll go out for that, that could be something too. There’s a lot of really, really cool musicians out there, talented, with the kind of talent that just isn’t made today. Just sitting around doing nothing. So I’d like to tap into that. It ain’t over, you know what I mean? The seventies, the whole seventies hard rock, late sixties psychedelic early seventies psychedelic/hard rock/whatever you want to call it, it ain’t quite done yet. You know what I mean? I’ll prove it to you. It’s not quite done, there’s more. It’s coming!MJ: Yeah there’s another chapter to be written.DW: I think it is! As long as these people live. And you know I mean a lot of new bands that are doing it too, you know? I mean just like jazz or blues, it’s never really over.MJ: Well as long as there are people picking up an instrument and picking up a microphone it will be there.DW: Yeah, exactly.MJ: It’s been, what…25, going on 26 years now as Monster Magnet? You know, a lot of yards and inches, sweat, blood and tears has gone into the band over the past quarter of a century, Dave!
DW: Jesus, the way you put it! I’m out here in the backyard with a shovel digging a hole! *Laughs* Seriously though, I’m having too much fun. Being in Monster Magnet has been more fun for me in the last ten years than it was in the first I think 12. Because, the first 12 was a mad race in the old system and hitting a wall. You know, hitting a commercial wall and a perception wall. You know? We started off as a total psychedelic rock band. Moved into a straight on hard rock band that was still very much the same elements as we started, just a little bit more overt and in your face. And then we had a big hit, and the big hit and the big video, and that kind of confused the issue with record companies and audiences. Well, that’s what these guys are. Their modern age and brand yourself it’s kind of hard to un-brand yourself. And usually you brand yourself on your biggest success. And that was it. So after a certain time, it was hard for me to and hard for us to operate as an honest musical band that could take a left turn and a right turn without having people go oh, that’s not it. You know? It’s like well, no, that’s not it according to you but it is according to us. Fair enough. We had to build it back up. And I think I did. Cool. So now it’s really fun, I don’t have to deal with any of those kind of expectations anymore. Maybe if we go to South America and they’re like “Space Lord!” you must do it! You know? And we’ll always do “Space Lord”. But we finally started to crawl out of people’s notion, notions on what’s the band about.MJ: Monster Magnet always get a huge response when we get them on ‘The Classic Rock Show’.DW: That’s awesome, that’s just awesome.MJ: You’ve got a few dates in the UK in February 2015. Are we going to see Dave Wyndorf with a little half-sized keyboard stood next to him? Running out some of these tunes from ‘Milking the Stars’?DW: You know I was going to do it this time, just didn’t have the time to set up the whole prog-rock thing. So, this is going to be heavy on the psych, heavy on the rock, and will feature songs that we haven’t done in a really long time, plus all the hits! “You guys going to do Space Lord, right?”…I mean, yeah, it’s a very, very satisfying thing to do it this way because we haven’t done a proper, I mean the last couple of times we’ve been through the UK we’ve just done album stuff. I think the last time we came through we did, it was, Last Patrol in its entirety and a couple other songs. And then before that was ‘Spine Of God’ and before that it was ‘Dopes To Infinity’. So this one will be more well-rounded representation of the Monster Magnet repertoire.MJ: We’re looking forward to it. Well, Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet, thank you so very much for your time talking to The Classic Rock Show. Listeners…go see Monster Magnet! DW: Right on! Thanks, dude, thank you so much it’s a pleasure. I love to talk to people about rock, dude, it’s just very, very specific thing. It’s so much different than how the whole rock thing has fallen into the metal ghetto. It’s like you know, people gotta stand up for this shit. This is not what a lot of people think it is, you know? It’s a lot classier than metal. You know what I mean? No, seriously, there’s no reason why classic rock or that thing has to be old. You know what I mean?MJ: Well that’s how I see it too. I call it ‘The Classic Rock Show’, but play stuff that’s just been released because this is the future. You know? We got the old stuff and we got the new stuff…heck, it was new 30-40+ years ago? So let’s get it out there, let’s get people into it, buying it and going to gigs!DW: Yeah there needs to be some representation of actual taste. It’s so weird, I’ve been pretty much, people in the states have rolled over. I know you probably have your complaints, but the UK has a lot more respect for hard rock than the states does. The states has completely rolled over, it’s like whatever you got, we’ll take. Literally they are more concerned about other things and they think music is going to be free and great forever. They don’t realize that the less attention they pay and the less, the less standards they set. They set no standards. There’s no demands, it’s like they just pick and choose. So there’s not a group of, there’s not an intelligent group of people, there’s no like fortress of criticism here. There’s nothing. It’s just, and left to their own devices the masses choose crap all the time. There’s nothing to direct it, the focus, and it’s pretty disturbing. That’s why I hardly ever play in the states anymore, it’s hardly worth it. Europe’s the place to play, all over Europe is the place for rock, very cool.MJ: Listen man, it’s been a real pleasure. Maybe bump fists when you come to play the Electric Ballroom?DW: Right on man. I would love to meet you. Thanks MJ. Take it easy.

To all the bands, artists, tour managers & crew, record labels, PR companies, venues, our supply chain, our Admins who work tirelessly in the background and, of course, the fabulous listeners who tune in to ‘The Classic Rock Show’ and ‘Bex Rocks’, Bex and I would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support and for doing what you’ve done for us throughout 2014.

We’ve had our best year to date and that’s down to you; listener engagement is up, we’ve interviewed more bands than ever before, premiered more singles than ever before, had more site visits than ever before, more Tweets, more RTs and more Favorites than ever before….yeah, 2014 has been a stellar year for us.

We’ve set our sights high for the coming year…we’ll keep you posted on news and developments etc.